{"id":4477,"date":"2026-11-15T16:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-15T11:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4477"},"modified":"2026-11-15T16:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-15T11:03:48","slug":"houthis-gain-control-of-bab-el-mandeb-area-as-yemeni-forces-withdraw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4477","title":{"rendered":"Houthis gain control of Bab El Mandeb area as Yemeni forces withdraw"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Yemeni forces fighting for the internationally recognised Saudi-backed government said on Sunday that they were withdrawing from an area overlooking the strategic Bab El Mandeb Strait, leaving the Iran-aligned Houthis in control.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government\u2019s retreat \u200bfrom the Bab El Mandeb area hands the Houthis greater leverage over the maritime chokepoint, creating \u200ca potent pressure point on global shipping while Iran continues to disrupt traffic<\/u><\/a> through the Strait of Hormuz<\/u><\/a> on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.<\/p>\n

This dual squeeze would further isolate Gulf oil producers from their main shipping routes.<\/p>\n

The Bab El Mandeb Strait<\/u><\/a> is one \u200bof the world\u2019s most important and busiest routes for global seaborne commodity and goods shipments, particularly \u200bfrom Asia to Europe via Egypt\u2019s Suez Canal.<\/p>\n

The southern Yemeni forces said they were \u2060redeploying toward Aden, where the government is based, as the Houthis \u2014 who control much of the north, \u200bincluding the capital Sanaa and Yemen\u2019s most populous areas \u2014 increase pressure<\/u><\/a> on the southern areas still under government control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Southern \u200bArmed Forces announce the implementation of a redeployment operation for its forces from Dhubab Airport and the Bab El Mandeb area, west of Taiz Governorate,\u201d the southern forces said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis step is taken based on the priority of securing the \u200bcapital, Aden, and the neighbouring governorates, as well as strengthening the front lines and addressing existing threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government \u200bforces launched a military campaign<\/u><\/a> in October to recapture the strategic coastal areas from the powerful militia, which had pushed south \u200cin September \u2060in an attempt to seize control of Yemen\u2019s entire Red Sea coast. The lightning offensive<\/u><\/a> brought the Houthis within reach of Bab El Mandeb.<\/p>\n

The escalation in fighting, which broke a 2022 UN-brokered truce, became another volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war on Iran,<\/u><\/a> as the Houthis continue to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia, a key US \u200bally and the world\u2019s biggest \u200bcrude exporter.<\/p>\n

Houthi attacks on \u2060the kingdom, which had enjoyed relative calm during the early months of the nine-month-old Iran war, have disrupted flights and oil supplies as the Houthis struck Saudi \u200bports, airports<\/u><\/a> and facilities of state oil company Saudi Aramco<\/u><\/a> \u2014 including the kingdom\u2019s Red Sea oil \u200bexport hub<\/u><\/a> \u2060of Yanbu.<\/p>\n

In response, Saudi Arabia struck Houthi targets in Yemen, a country mired in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis pushed the government south. Impoverished Yemen has been grappling with one of the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n

Fighting \u2060is intensifying \u200baround the western region of Taiz, with humanitarian conditions worsening.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

The \u200bcity, which hosts about half of the 300,000 people displaced across Yemen by the latest fighting, remains besieged. Aid supplies are unable to \u200benter, and civilians are unable to leave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yemeni forces fighting for the internationally recognised Saudi-backed government said on Sunday that they were withdrawing from an area overlooking the strategic Bab El Mandeb Strait, leaving the Iran-aligned Houthis in control. The government\u2019s retreat \u200bfrom the Bab El Mandeb area hands the Houthis greater leverage over the maritime chokepoint, creating \u200ca potent pressure point on global shipping while Iran continues to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. This dual squeeze would further isolate Gulf oil producers from their main shipping…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}